Back in the early 1950s my mother sent the family's down sleeping bags to the local small town dry cleaners, not knowing any better. They survived and were a bit warmer and a lot less smelly. The bags were bought in 1941 and had been used for 6 weeks or more every summer, so they certainly were in bad shape. They never had performed to their advertised temp of 32*. My parents got another 5 years' use out of them.

About all you can do is to see what the down bag looks like when you get it back. I suspect the main issue will be that because of the loss of oils in the down, it may be more prone to absorb moisture. There might be a way to recondition the down. I did a little googling but didn't find anything except that some down coats have to be dry cleaned. Your main issue may be that the sleeping bags need a lot of airing out to get the residual chemical smell out.

I don't know about the synthetic bag; it will probably be OK. I'd be worried about the tent, though--set it up in the back yard and test it with a hose to see if the waterproofing or seam sealing has been damaged by the chemicals.

If you're lucky, she will have sent the stuff to a firm which knows how to clean sporting gear and will have washed the sleeping bags! That's far more likely to be true today than back in 1952!

You may need to renew the DWR on the sleeping bag outer shells. Try a squirt or two from a water spray bottle and see if the drops bead up. If they soak into the shell instead, use a water repellent spray (such as Revivex). Making sure the DWR on the outer shell is OK may make up for losing oils from the down.

It looks as though you'll need to add some words of warning to future gear borrowers, like please do not attempt to wash or clean the gear, other than sweeping out the tent. I wouldn't have thought about it, either!

Please let us know how the stuff came out!